I stink at my blog

Since Faebook came along it is just easier to put photos on my page and communicate with others that way. I need to be better about my blog though, it is my journal in a way. Many fun things have happened this spring, Kids are kicking butt in golf, Ashlen is getting smarter by the day, Brent and I took a trip to Los Cabos, Mexico, Lauren and I went to LV for her 16th bday trip, Lauren got her drivers license, Peyten got detention for high kicking a random locker, ( it was a really high locker so secretly I am pround), Brent went to bat for Peyten with the Principal about the kicking incident cause we thought it was stupid, anyway, more fun things for sure happened but now I am all ticked off about the locker thing again and so I am stumped.

I finally, or Brent should I say, finally broke down and let the kids keep one of the puppies from the last litter. She is a sweet white dog and Peyten named her Sandi. We were thinking of golf names and Sandi stuck. Not sure what kind of a dog she is, she looks like a Lab, but on the smaller side. She is really Peytens dog and he is responsible for her training, or lack of. She mostly barks and pees but is really cute. Smalls, our other dog, tolerates her and looks ticked off when I let her get up on my bed because that is her spot. I have been taking in homeless dogs and their pups now for about a year and love it. I have a very hard time saying good bye when they have to leave but know that I get new ones soon. The current set that we have are adorable, the smallest ones we have had so far. The mom is some sort of a smaller mix, really sweet. Ashlen loves playing with them and plays pretend with them for hours. She was in the hot tub the other day and had two of them in there with her, just hanging out.

Laurens school golf team won their district golf tournament and so they are in Waco now playing in Regionals. Brent went over there last night to watch her final round today. She has really improved this year and seems to love it. Why didn't I play golf when I was younger, what a great sport for a girl. She is getting amazing grades this year and only has 56 tardies in seminary. At least she goes and loves it, just can't quite get there in time. It does start at 5:50 am and it does take time to look amazing everyday!!!! I love teenage girls!!!

The boys drive me crazy most days, they argue on the way to school and then on the way home. I couldn't stand it the other day so i set the timer and made them hug it out for one minute. Peyten also is wanting to have a girlfriend and asks almost everyday why he can't. I guess there is a girl at school who likes him and her likes her too, so what else is there when you are 11. He is a chick magnet, just like his daddy was. Austen plays it cool with girls, my friend told me he has the it factor with the girls, whatever that means. I just know that they say hi to him kindof funny like and he nods his head at them and says, "hey". When you got it you got it, sorry boys, Austen's got it. Puberty is finally catching up with him, next year could be interesting.

Last I need to tell you a funny story about my niece Olivia. She brought home some of her work that they had been working on at school. This is it:

My Birthday surprise

Who doesn't love to be surprised??? First of all I must mention that besides being a totally smokin' hot dude, My husband Brent is a total rock star!!!!! I mean, nobody has a sweeter more loving guy than me. I realized just how much he really cares about what I care about when he flew my sister Angela and her two cutie pie girls out for my birthday. It was a total surprise, they knocked on my door and when I answered it I just stared at the girls knowing who they were but not really thinking that it could really be them!!! The party began at once. We talked and laughed and ate and played and watch the girls in the hot tub and holding the puppies. We shopped and watched movies and ate some more and hung out with my fun kids and watch our children love on each other. I can not begin to tell you how much I love those two little girls of Angela's. I always knew I would love being an Aunt, but I really didn't realize how much I would adore and love those girls like they are my own. They really are mine anyway, that's how I feel about them anyway. ( I feel like that with all of my siblings kids and Brents siblings kids). I think I am going to love being a Grandma!!!! Anyway, they left way too soon, after only 10 short days and left me feeling lonesome for Gracies cute little laugh and Olivia's funny way of saying things and cute smile. Only one mishap happened, Gracie burned her bum on my fireplace when she was warming herself naked after being in the hot tub. Poor little cute bum. My camera is all jacked up so none of the photos I took really were in focus, but I had to include what I could!!!

It's not beginning to look like Christmas...

The Temp. is a balmy 80 degrees today, hard to get into the Christmas spirit when Ashlen asked me this morning if she could go swimming and the kids are all outside playing and sweating!!! Also, since we will not be home for Christmas I didn't want to put up a tree at all, I really don't like all the work of Christmas, it's not good, it is a problem I have. Anyway, Brent and the kids thought it would just be easier to buy a real tree rather than convience me to drag the tree out of the attic, so I decided it would be way easier to buy new christmas ornaments instead of go up to the hot, yucky attic and bring down all the decorations. I wasn't about to go up there anyway, Brent saw a mouse up there a few months ago, I had nightmares after that!!! Everything in the attic is now contaminated and will be destroyed during intervals of time when Brent is out of town!!!

We are flying to Las Vegas for Christmas this year and meeting up with My brothers and there families to do a little skiing in S. Utah. The kids are way excited...I am nervous, hoping my back will hold up some intense hanging out time with my nephews and my one Niece, Princess Bayden.

This time of year I alway look back on the past year and look forward to the new one with lots of goals and plans to make life better and more enjoyable. Let's be honest, that is just a bunch of crap. The one awesome thing about the new year is that Lauren turns 16 the first of February and will be able to drive, Rock on to that!!!!! Even though it makes me very nervous to have her on the road alone, it will make life so much better to have her driving!!! Pray for us all!!!

To close i have included my Christmas list in case anyone is interested!!!

Two tickets to somewhere aweome for me and my sister Angela to get away from our kids for 1 to 4 weeks.

Lots of cash

Peace on the Mexican Border

Obama possibly getting swine flu or something else that makes him more humble

Food for all the hungry children in the world, starting with the ones in America!!!

Small loosing a bit of weight so she can make the jump onto my bed the first time

Size 8 jeans and my butt fitting into them

All the baseboards cleaned in my house

Brent to stay as hot as he is right now forever!!!

Yummy homemade salsa always in my fridge, always fresh

All my kids to stop fighting with each other, not all at once though, cause it may cause me to die of a heart attack

Lauren to be safe while driving, Austen to win a major golf tournament, Peyten to eat my dinners that I make, and Ashlen to stop whinnng when she talks!!!

Homecoming and Halloween

Lauren went to her school homecoming with a fun group of kids. She said she had a great time. It is tradition here in Texas that the girls and boys wear big huge mums on the friday of the football game. This was Laurens first time to get a mum, it was funny to me a first, they are so big that you have to wear them around your neck if you are a girl and on your arm as a garter as a guy. It seems like the thing to do is get them as big as possible if you like that kind of thing. Lauren's was a medium size, she likes things a bit more conservative. For the dance, her group decided to go dressed up as characters from movies. The boy to her character was Zoolander and she was the secretary, that is why he looks a little funny, but it worked for him cause he is a funny guy. I was extremely proud of Lauren for her dress choice, she went with a very adorable and modest dress. I can't believe what girls where to dances these days, so low cut and short. Lauren has her standards and didn't wish to compromise them, what a girl!!!

Halloween was fun, it seemed to last all weekend. My older kids chose to not treat or treat this year. Lauren took Ashlen to a few houses on the street, but since it was on a sunday I just really wanted them closer to home. Austen and two of his friends dressed up scary and tried to scare kids that came to the door. A few times they got kids pretty good, next year we need to really spook it up.

Parents 49th Anniversary

I once again copied this from my sister, cute picture of my parents.

Angela's post about Logan

I have a few stories I've been wanting to write about, you know, for posterity...or whatever. Here's one. The timing of this one is about right since it happened almost 7 years ago to the day. This one is a hard one for me. Possibly one of the hardest things I have had to go through in my 30+ years. Let me go get some kleenex.

My younger sister Abby, was pregnant and unmarried. She decided to give the baby boy up for adoption through LDS services. She has a really cool story of her own of how she knew this couple she chose for her unborn child was the right family for him. And she was even more sure of that decision when she met them for the first time. But this is my story.

We knew she had made the right decision to give up her baby but I really don't know how women/girls do it. It was hard for me to imagine since I was already married at the time so it wouldn't even be an option for me. How can you just give this child to someone else knowing you'll probably never see them again or have much of a relationship with them.

The day she gave birth to him, our older sister Amysue, was on a plane to SLC, where she picked me up and the two of us drove to St. George where she had had the baby. He was darling. Our family genes that we all share were there. We didn't know what the adoptive parents were going to name him so it was weird not having a name for him. I nicknamed him Harry because he was so hairy. Another gene we all got from our dad. Thanks dad. When they were both released from the hospital, we all went to stay at my parent's house. We had a night (or two?) with him before his parents were to come for the "placement". Abby had pictures taken with him. We held him and loved him.

Before the actual placement took place Abby went to the social service office to sign her rights away. Amysue and I dropped her off. She wanted to go in alone. We sat in the car and cried, wipping our tears on the only thing we could find. A pair of little socks Amysue had bought for him that had been left in the car. We wanted to do something nice for Abby so we went to the store and bought her roses. When we went back to pick her up we went inside and gave her the roses. We got to meet her counselor. She was wonderful. She told us she'd never seen a family so supportive as ours. That made me feel good.

The night of the placement most of our family was gathered beforehand at my parents. Everyone was there but Alex's family and Anne, who had passed away almost a year before. We had a family prayer together and cried and cried and cried. We were late getting there. I'm sure the couple was worried we'd not show up.

The couple who is adopting is instructed not to even touch the baby until they are "placed" in their arms by the birth mother. Just like everything in our church, there is an order to things. We met them. Visited with them. And then we let them open presents we had bought for him. Clothes, toys, and a blanket made by our sister in law who always makes the nieces and nephews a blanket because we are a blanket family. They let Abby leave the room alone with the baby so she could say goodbye. Then she brought him back and all of us in the family got to hold him one last time. Then she said one final goodbye to him and then placed him in his mother's arms. Time stood still for a moment as I took everything in.

Until that point I was a wreck. I couldn't stop crying. But when he was placed in their arms a peace came and I knew he wasn't ours. He was theirs. And the crying stopped for a time. Also when he was placed in her arms we could physically see her emotions. Until then she had been strong. Not showing any emotion. Her husband was the one who had been emotional before. But she couldn't physically hold him since she was shaking so hard. She finally said to her husband, "Take him. I'm going to drop him." He tenderly took him and looked at his face. Then she calmed down enough to take him back. It was beautiful to see this couple, who had wanted a child so badly, finally get their wish. An answer to their prayers.

Logan will be 7 years old tomorrow. His mother was able to have another son a couple years ago via invitro so he now has a little brother. What a lucky boy he is.

The point of this story is, I never hear the stories from the families of the birth parents. Just as the birth parents love the child they give up, so do their families. He will always hold a special place in my heart even though he isn't part of our family. I was so glad to have those few days with him when he was a newborn. But also, it was amazing to witness that spiritual event of that baby being given to his new family. I literally could feel that he no longer was part of our family anymore as soon as they touched him. Thankfully there was peace with that feeling instead of feeling like my heart was being ripped out. After that it was still hard. And it still is hard to think about but I know he was meant to be with them.

About time for another post

Ok..I know it has been like forever, but we have been super busy and whatever so I am just going to start over and not repeat any of the past. Too much stuff happened so lets move forward.

School is in session, it is always a bittersweet for me cause I miss my kids so much, but also it gives me and them a chance to be away from each other. Lauren is a sophomore, Austen 8th grade, peyten 6th grade, and Ashlen is in preschool. Lauren is playing volleyball for the school again, she made the JV team, but after a few weeks the coach moved her up to Varsity. Basically she is kicking butt and has the awesome athletic genes that run so freely in my side of the family...hehe. Peyten and Austen are both playing football, Peyten broke his arm the second week of practice and was out a few of the games. He played with a cast on, we don't let a broken arm interfere with our playing time. Once Fall sports are all over with them all of the kids will start golf up again. They all had a great golf season this past summer, Austen especially did, i think he golfed in about 30 or so tournaments.

I am taking a tennis class at the college...so far I really love it. Not so great at it right now, but still am having fun. Most of the people in my class are 20 something college students just taking a PE credit so they pretty much suck more than I do. Eric, my partner last week, told me his mom said he had to get a job and stop playing Xbox all the time. I think he wanted my support cause we were partners and all but I told him it was time to grow up!!!

I am still fostering puppies, I have two litters right now. They are pretty much adorable, Ashlen wants to hold them all day long. The older ones right now are 4 weeks old and look like teddy bears, they are so cute. I will have to take some pics.

Brent just turned 42 a few weeks ago, so sad for me. I can't be married to someone that old? Where has the time gone? I guess to finish my post I will say a few words regarding Brent getting old:

He has grey hair and much more hair other places than before I married him...yuck!!!

He is a bit wrinkly under his eyes, this is due to the fact that he doesn't wear sunscreen on his face when he golfs. Soon he is going to be walking around looking like he has a Trophy wife.

He randomly falls asleep while not in bed; church, car, couch, work, jogging, eating, golfing

He is starting to make stuff up and repeat the same stories over and over..."When I was your age..."

When he walks his body makes creaking and cracking sounds.

He is still better looking and skinnier than me, that will never change.

I love you my cutie dude!!!!